Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

HOME • MENU • Search:

WWW Trilogy: Wake | Watch | Wonder

Neanderthal Trilogy: Hominids | Humans | Hybrids

Quintaglio Trilogy: Far-Seer | Fossil Hunter | Foreigner

Short Story Collections: Iterations | Relativity | Identity Theft

You can get most of my novels from your favorite bookstore, or you can order autographed copies directly from me.

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For more information select a book from the shelf,
or just keep on scrolling!

The Oppenheimer Alternative | Quantum Night | Red Planet Blues | Triggers | Wake | Watch | Wonder | Identity Theft | Rollback | Mindscan | Hominids | Humans | Hybrids | Iterations | Calculating God | FlashForward | Factoring Humanity | Illegal Alien | Frameshift | Starplex | The Terminal Experiment | End of an Era | Far-Seer | Fossil Hunter | Foreigner | Golden Fleece

• What's a Robert J. Sawyer science fiction novel like?
• Rob's short fiction collections
• Rob's aborted Star Trek novel
• Rob's aborted novel in the Star Wars universe
• Anthologies edited by Robert J. Sawyer
  
• Short Fiction by Robert J. Sawyer
  

"A new novel by Robert J. Sawyer is always a major event."

— Quill & Quire

"Robert J. Sawyer's novels — intelligent, literate, and immensely readable explorations of the biggest ideas there are — prove that science fiction is now literature."

— The Halifax Chronicle-Herald

"Here are a few of the things I like about Robert J. Sawyer: His novels are fast moving and tightly constructed; his characters are developed so that I care what happens to them; the science in his science fiction is intrinsic to the plot but not so arcane that readers have to be nuclear physicists to understand it; and he doesn't imitate others or himself."

— Rocky Mountain News

"Cracking open a Robert J. Sawyer book is like getting a gift from a friend who visits all the strange and undiscovered places in the world. You can't wait to see what he's going to amaze you with this time.""

— John Scalzi

"A new Robert J. Sawyer book is always cause for celebration."

— Analog

There's a specific entry for each of my science fiction novels farther down this page. For each one, I've provided:

• opening chapters
• cover blurb
• reviews
• cover art from around the world
• annotated dedications and acknowledgments
• a list of working titles

Most novels also have Reading Group guides, with questions and discussion topics for readers' circles, student groups, and book clubs.

Many of my novels are used in the classroom.

Outlines and Synopses for some of my novels.

I've provided a guide to the recurring themes in my science fiction.

The Oppenheimer Alternative

Can Oppenheimer, Einstein, Szilard, and Feynman redeem themselves and save the world?

Rob's latest novel!

"Incredibly realistic: the characters, locations, the era, and even the science. I felt like I was back in Los Alamos — and I should know: I worked there! Breathlessly riveting; Sawyer pulls it off masterfully." — Doug Beason, former Associate Laboratory Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory

More about The Oppenheimer Alternative

Quantum Night

Quantum physics meets experimental psychology

Aurora Award winner!
#1 Locus Bestseller!

"A really good book. Just the sort of science fiction I'd like to be writing myself if I had the time." — John Gribbin, author of In Search of Schrödinger's Cat

More about Quantum Night

Red Planet Blues

A hard-boiled detective novel set on Mars

Maclean's Bestseller!
Globe and Mail Bestseller!
Locus Bestseller!

"An excellent detective novel that just happens to take place on another planet. It's a genre mash-up that might have felt gimmicky in less capable hands; however, with Sawyer at the helm, it succeeds beautifully." — The Maine Edge

More about Red Planet Blues

Triggers

Near-future political thriller

Globe and Mail Bestseller!
Locus Bestseller!

"A thriller's pacing and a chilling near-future world. Sawyer's strength is in the overarching ideas of his stories, and he certainly delivers here." — Booklist

More about Triggers

Wonder

The third book in the WWW Trilogy

Globe and Mail Bestseller!
Locus Bestseller!
Winner Aurora Award for Best Novel of the Year!

"Not just an adventure story, Wonder is also (like its predecessors) a starting point for speculations on ethics and morality, the meaning of consciousness and conscience, and the place of intelligence in the cosmos. This is Robert J. Sawyer at his very best." — Analog Science Fiction and Fact

More about Wonder

Watch

The second book in the WWW Trilogy

Globe and Mail Bestseller!
Locus Bestseller!
Winner Aurora Award for Best Novel of the Year!

A Main Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club
Limited edition, leather-bound hardcover from Easton Press

"As readers have come to expect, Sawyer shows his genius in combining cutting-edge scientific theories and technological developments with real human characters." — The Globe and Mail: Canada's National Newspaper

More about Watch

Wake

The World Wide Web wakes up ...

Winner Aurora Award for Best Novel of the Year!

Hugo Award Finalist!

"Robert J. Sawyer gives us not only an entertaining novel but also a new way of looking at the World Wide Web. A superb work of day-after-tomorrow science fiction — I enjoyed every page."
— Allen Steele, two-time Hugo Award-winning author of Coyote Horizon

More about Wake

Identity Theft and Other Stories

Stories by Canada's Leading Science Fiction Author

Aurora Award Finalist!

This new collection by the man Anne McCaffrey calls "an absolutely marvelous writer" includes Hugo Award nominee "Shed Skin," Nebula Award nominee "Identity Theft," and Aurora Award winner "Ineluctable." In these pages, you'll discover the dark secret of the only priest on Mars, revisit H.G. Wells's Morlocks, and learn what really happens when aliens beam us the Encyclopedia Galactica.

More about Identity Theft

Rollback

A novel of human rejuvenation and alien communication ... of bridging decades and light-years.

Hugo Award Finalist!

"Rollback is a reminder of why Sawyer is one of our most highly regarded writers of speculative fiction, able to handle the demands of the heart and the cosmos with equal skill." — Quill & Quire

More about Rollback

Mindscan

The Future of Uploaded Humanity Hangs in the Balance.

Winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award!

"The novel's near-future setting — a socially liberal Canada that provides a haven from fundamentalist Christian-controlled America — may excite as much interest as the Mindscan concept." — Publishers Weekly

More about Mindscan

Hybrids

The Startling Conclusion of The Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy.

Starred Review in Booklist!

"Hybrids is a novel of complex ideas wrapped in a tightly plotted, viscerally satisfying narrative, exciting and thought-provoking. It's the sort of book one wants to read at least twice: once for the headlong thrill of the story, and again to fully absorb the implicaitons of Sawyer's ideas." — Quill & Quire

More about Hybrids

Humans

Book Two in The Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy.

Two Earths, One Destiny.

Canadian National Bestseller!

"The biggest job of science fiction is to portray the Other. To help us imagine the strange and see the familiar in eerie new ways. Nobody explores this territory more boldly than Robert Sawyer." — David Brin

More about Humans

Hominids

First Book in The Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy.

Discover what it means to be human.

Hugo Award Winner!

"An amazing journey. One of those rare page-turners where the reader regrets turning to the last page. Sawyer writes good books — and good science fiction." — The Edmonton Journal

More about Hominids

Iterations and Other Stories

The First Collection of Stories by "the Dean of Canadian SF"

New trade paperback edition, March 2008!

We sell the original Quarry Press hardcover edition here!

"These excellent funny, sad, thought-provoking short stories prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that no one comes close to Robert J. Sawyer's ability to explore and present a collection of truly cool ideas." — Tanya Huff, author of Blood Price

More about Iterations

Calculating God

Hugo Award Finalist!

"Exciting and emotional. Sawyer smoothly combines ethical questions and comical dialogue in a highly absorbing tale." — Booklist

More about Calculating God

FlashForward

Basis for the ABC TV series.

A physics experiment goes awry, causing the consciousness of everyone on Earth to jump ahead for a period of two minutes.

Winner of Europe's top science fiction award!

"This first-rate, philosophical journey, a terrific example of idea-driven science fiction, should have wide appeal." — Publishers Weekly (starred review, denoting a book of exceptional merit)

More about FlashForward

Factoring Humanity

A near-future philosophical science fiction story of first contact, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.

Hugo and Aurora Award Finalist!

"I loved it. May you also." — Analog Science Fiction and Fact

More about Factoring Humanity

Illegal Alien

A courtroom drama with an extraterrestrial defendant.

Arthur Ellis and Aurora Award Finalist!

"The best Canadian mystery of 1997." — The Globe and Mail

More about Illegal Alien

Frameshift

A science fiction thriller set against the backdrop of the Human Genome Project.

Hugo Finalist! Seiun Winner!

A selection of the Science Fiction Book Club

"Gripping; highly recommended." — Library Journal

More about Frameshift

Starplex

The wormholes are open. Discovery awaits.

Hugo and Nebula Award Finalist!

A selection of the Science Fiction Book Club
Serialized in Analog Science Fiction and Fact

"Here, at last, is an ambitious attempt to exploit the possibilities that the science fiction genre is capable of." — The Toronto Star

More about Starplex

The Terminal Experiment

A scientist discovers proof for the existence of the human soul.

Nebula Award Winner!

"A terrific mix of science, technological derring-do and murder. A great story; a crackerjack novel." — The Globe and Mail

More about The Terminal Experiment

End of an Era

War of the Worlds meets The Time Machine.

Seiun Award Winner!

"It's not too much to say that this is one of the most accomplished science fiction novels of the last ten years." — Quill & Quire

More about End of an Era

Far-Seer

An allegory about Galileo on a planet of intelligent dinosaurs.

Homer Award Winner!

"A tour de force. Vastly enjoyable, beautifully realized." — Asimov's Science Fiction

More about Far-Seer

Fossil Hunter

The story of the dinosaurian equivalent of Darwin.

Homer Award Winner!

"Brilliant. Although obviously aimed at the science fiction crowd, it deserves a much wider readership." — Books in Canada

More about Fossil Hunter

Foreigner

An alien counterpart of Sigmund Freud psychoanalyzes his race's equivalent of Galileo.

"Robert J. Sawyer deserves a round of vigorous applause." — Analog Science Fiction and Fact

More about Foreigner

Golden Fleece

A high-tech game of cat-and-mouse between a murderous computer and a starship engineer.

Aurora Award Winner!

"How good is Robert J. Sawyer's book? A friend of mine — an English professor — used to ask, whenever he saw me, `Why are you still writing that spaceship stuff?' Now I can answer. Because this is possible." — Orson Scott Card in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

More about Golden Fleece

More Good Reading

Opening Chapters index
Cover Art index
Cover Blurb index
Review Excerpts index

Reading Group guides

Dedications and Acknowledgments index
"About the Author" pages from each novel

Recurring Themes in Rob's novels

Rob's short-story collections: Iterations and Identity Theft
Rob's collection of Stories, Speeches, and Articles Relativity
Rob's aborted Star Trek novel
Rob's aborted Star Wars novel
Anthologies edited by Robert J. Sawyer
Short Fiction by Robert J. Sawyer

Some fun jokes about Rob's novels